Can Isolated Mental Consciousness Alter the External Objective Aspect?

The generation and transformation of all dharmas are functions and operations of the Tathāgatagarbha, because the Tathāgatagarbha contains the seeds of all dharmas. The sixth and seventh consciousnesses do not possess the seeds of all dharmas and thus cannot generate or transform all dharmas. However, they can influence the Tathāgatagarbha and operate collaboratively with it, prompting the Tathāgatagarbha to generate and transform all dharmas. Neither the sense-accompanying consciousness nor the solitary consciousness can alter the external manifestation aspect or the internal manifestation aspect, nor can they prompt the Tathāgatagarbha to change the internal and external manifestation aspects. This must be achieved by influencing the manas (the seventh consciousness), which then prompts the Tathāgatagarbha to generate and transform the internal and external manifestation aspects.

Changes to the external manifestation aspect or even the internal manifestation aspect are not determined by any single consciousness alone, but are the result of the collaborative operation of the three transforming consciousnesses. When causes, conditions, and karmic seeds ripen, the three transforming consciousnesses must operate together to generate all dharmas, and they can also transform all dharmas when the causal conditions ripen. However, to alter the external manifestation aspect, it is necessary to change the karmic seeds, but the conditions for changing the karmic seeds must also ripen.

To change the external manifestation aspect, whether through short-term rapid change or long-term gradual change, both the sixth and seventh transforming consciousnesses must be extremely potent, causing the karmic seeds within the Tathāgatagarbha to undergo change. Once the karmic seeds change, the external manifestation aspect can be altered. If the sixth and seventh consciousnesses lack power, the sense-accompanying consciousness and manas cannot prompt the Tathāgatagarbha to change the external manifestation aspect, and the solitary consciousness in dreams is even less capable of changing the external manifestation aspect. What can prompt the Tathāgatagarbha to quickly change the external manifestation aspect must be the sixth and seventh consciousnesses in meditative concentration, preferably the solitary consciousness and manas in meditative concentration. Scattered solitary consciousness, sense-accompanying consciousness, and manas cannot achieve this due to their lack of power.

The solitary consciousness in dreams can scarcely prompt the Tathāgatagarbha to change the external manifestation aspect by influencing manas, because the power of consciousness is very weak or entirely absent, and there is no concrete karmic action to induce a transformation in the karmic seeds; thus, the external manifestation aspect cannot be changed. Even during waking states, the wild thoughts, disordered thoughts, and delusional thoughts of the solitary consciousness cannot, within a short period, prompt the Tathāgatagarbha to change the external manifestation aspect by influencing manas, due to their scattered and powerless nature. However, if the solitary consciousness can concentrate its energy, its delusional thoughts will gain the power to influence manas, enabling manas to possess the power of discernment, thereby prompting the Tathāgatagarbha to rapidly change the external manifestation aspect. Through the mental formations (saṃskāra) of manas and the thoughts of the solitary consciousness, without physical or verbal actions, karmic seeds can still be altered, thus changing the external manifestation aspect. Therefore, mental thoughts and mental actions are also karmic actions that bear karmic retribution.